Nakivubo headmistress arrested over UPE fraud

THE headmistress of Nakivubo Blue Primary School, Jane Kansiime Bwesigye, and her second deputy, Josephine Nakibuuka, were yesterday charged with abuse of office. They allegedly inflated the number of pupils under the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme. Charles Ariko and Alfred Wasike report that Kansiime and Nakibuuka allegedly inflated the school enrollment by 402 ghost pupils. Under UPE, the Government pays sh5,000 per pupil per year for lower classes and sh8,100 for those in Primary Four to Seven. The accused, who appeared before magistrate Charles Kisakye at the Buganda Road Court, denied the charges and were remanded in Luzira Prison till a November 8 hearing. They allegedly committed the crime between January 4 and September 27 when they submitted the inflated registers to the Ministry of Education for purposes of getting UPE funds. Kisakye told the accused that they could only apply for bail before the High Court. President Yoweri Museveni recently ordered an investigation into claims that some primary school headteachers had inflated the pupil enrollment under the UPE programme. The CID on September 27 raided some Kampala government-aided schools over the claims. The CID carried out a head-count of pupils and cross-checked with the school registers and figures submitted to the ministry of education. They also interviewed headmasters and teachers. "President Museveni is very annoyed. The arrest of the headmistress of Nakivubo Blue Primary School, Jane Kansiime Bwesigye, and her second deputy, Josephine Nakibuuka, is the beginning of our country-wide crack-down on those heads of schools out to sabotage the policy of the Universal Primary Education," Museveni's political assistant, Moses Byaruhanga, said yesterday. "This investigation, initiated by His Excellency, will eventually cover all the schools in the country. We are determined to expose all the UPE ghost pupils," Byaruhanga said. "The inflation of the registers in Nakivubo Blue Primary School means that Government has been releasing sh5,000 per child per year for pupils from P1 to P3 and sh8,100 for those in P4 to P7 this year alone," sources said.